by Admin | Jun 7, 2014 | News
(BGF) – China had blamed the United States for emboldening the Philippines and Vietnam to challenge its claims over the South China Sea. It has adopted more aggressive stance to assert “its sovereignty” over territorial disputes. The Reuters reported it formally established a military garrison for the South China Sea.
Click here to read the full article or visit Reuters website.
China’s hawks gaining sway in S. China sea dispute
July 25, 2012| by David Lague
(Reuters) – China has adopted a more aggressive stance in recent weeks on territorial disputes in the South China Sea as hard-line officials and commentators call on Beijing to take a tougher line with rival claimants.
China’s supreme policymaking body, the Politburo Standing Committee, is made up entirely of civilians, but outspoken People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers, intelligence advisers and maritime agency chiefs are arguing that Beijing should be more forceful in asserting its sovereignty over the sea and the oil and natural gas believed to lie under the sea-bed.
Most of them blame the United States’ so-called strategic “pivot” to Asia for emboldening neighbouring countries, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam, to challenge China’s claims.
“China now faces a whole pack of aggressive neighbours headed by Vietnam and the Philippines and also a set of menacing challengers headed by the United States, forming their encirclement from outside the region,” wrote Xu Zhirong, a deputy chief captain with China Marine Surveillance, in the June edition of China Eye, a publication of the Hong Kong-based China Energy Fund Committee.
“And, such a band of eager lackeys is exactly what the U.S. needs for its strategic return to Asia,” he wrote.
Most Chinese and foreign security policy analysts believe China wants to avoid military conflict across sea lanes that carry an annual $5 trillion in ship-borne trade, particularly if it raises the prospect of U.S. intervention.
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by Admin | Jun 6, 2014 | News
(BGF) – The Philippines Daily Inquirer said the Global Times, the China’s top newspaper, had assailed the Philippines and Vietnam for their “attempt to grab islands and waters (in the South China Sea), which don’t belong to them” by getting alliance with the United States. Liu Zongyi, a research fellow of the Center for South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, made a report on the Global Times to note that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “made a trip encircling China recently.
Click here to read the full article or visit the Inquirer’s website.
Chinese newspaper slams Philippines, Vietnam for running to US for help
July 18, 2012 by Jerry E. Esplanada
MANILA, Philippines—One of China’s top newspapers has assailed the Philippines and Vietnam for their alleged “attempt to grab islands and waters (in the South China Sea), which don’t belong to them by riding the back of the tiger,” apparently referring to the United States.
The Beijing-based Global Times, in a July 16 report, also said Manila and Hanoi “hope to get massive military assistance from the US, which the US can’t afford to provide.”
The report, titled “Clinton’s trip highlights weak points of US return to Asia,” was written by Liu Zongyi, a research fellow of the Center for South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.
It noted that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “made a trip encircling China recently.”
“From Japan to Mongolia then to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, Clinton mainly focused on three things: backing Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines in disputes with China over maritime territorial sovereignty, balancing China’s economic influence in Asian by enhancing trade and economic ties with Southeast Asian countries, and promoting support for democracy and human rights as the core of US Asian strategy while attacking China’s development model,” it said.
According to Liu, Clinton’s “every topic targeted China by insinuation. It seems the US is tightening its encirclement of China. But on the other hand, we can see the weakness of the US’ ‘back to Asia’ strategy.”
“The Obama administration’s strategy covers political and military fields, as well as trade and economy. But the strategy seemingly is gradually losing its edge,” said Liu.
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by Admin | Jun 6, 2014 | News
(BGF) – The Philippines Daily Inquirer reported that China sent four patrol ships to a disputed area of the South China Sea in order to protect its “sovereignty and territorial waters”
Click here to read full article or visit the Inquirer’s website.
China sends patrol ships to disputed waters
July 1, 2012
BEIJING—China has deployed four patrol ships to a disputed area of the South China Sea, state media said Sunday, amid a deepening row with Vietnam over competing territorial claims.
The ships, described by the Xinhua news agency as surveillance vessels, reached what China calls the Huayang reef in the Spratly islands on Sunday.
China last month summoned Vietnam’s ambassador in Beijing and protested a law adopted by the Vietnamese parliament that places the disputed Spratly islands under Hanoi’s sovereignty.
China and Vietnam, as well as other neighboring nations, are locked in longstanding territorial disputes over the South China Sea, including the resources-rich Spratly and Paracel islands.
Xinhua said that the ships left China’s southern island province of Hainan on June 26 and would travel more than 2,400 nautical miles on patrols.
The ships are under the authority of the Chinese government’s State Oceanic Administration and not the country’s navy.
China said Thursday it would resolutely oppose any military provocation in its territorial waters and protect its sovereignty – remarks that appeared to be directed partly at Vietnam.
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by Admin | Jun 6, 2014 | News
(BGF) – According to Reuters, China’s Defence Ministry said that its military had already set up a normal, combat-ready patrol system in seas in order to protect its maritime rights and sovereignty, as response to Vietnam air patrols over the Spratly Islands.
Click here to read the full article or visit Reuters website.
China starts “combat ready” patrols in disputed seas
June 28, 2012.
(Reuters) – China has begun combat-ready patrols in the waters around a disputed group of islands in the South China Sea, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday, the latest escalation in tension over the potentially resource-rich area.
Asked about what China would do in response to Vietnamese air patrols over the Spratly Islands, the ministry’s spokesman, Geng Yansheng, said China would “resolutely oppose any militarily provocative behaviour”.
“In order to protect national sovereignty and our security and development interests, the Chinese military has already set up a normal, combat-ready patrol system in seas under our control,” he said.
“The Chinese military’s resolve and will to defend territorial sovereignty and protect our maritime rights and interests is firm and unshakeable,” Geng added, according to a transcript on the ministry’s website (www.mod.gov.cn) of comments at a briefing.
He did not elaborate. The ministry does not allow foreign reporters to attend its monthly briefings.
China is involved in long-running disputes with Vietnam and the Philippines about ownership of the South China Sea and its myriad, mostly uninhabited, islands and atolls. Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims.
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by Admin | Jun 6, 2014 | News
(Photo Credit: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)
(BGF) – The Japan Times has reported that Chinese and Japanese business leaders have vowed to continue holding dialogues in order to “deepen mutual understanding…so as to contribute to the prosperity and peace of the Asian economy and society.” Cooperation and communication between the business communities in Japan and China is critical given the diplomatic tensions between the countries due to their territorial dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands and Japan’s actions during World War II. Click here to read the full article or visit The Japan Times‘ website.
Japan, China Execs Vow to Unite on Commerce
The Japan Times
Business leaders from Japan and China have pledged to keep the lines of communication open despite diplomatic friction over the Senkaku Islands and conflicting perceptions of wartime history.
“Relations between China and Japan are in a state to be very concerned,” Charles Yin, founder of the China-Japan Asia CEO Forum, said Wednesday. “So I thought economic leaders need to stand up and hold dialogues to deepen mutual understanding and communicate with each other so as to contribute to the prosperity and peace of the Asian economy and society.”
Yin, who is also executive chairman of the Chinese investment and advisory firm Worldwide City Holdings, was speaking at a news conference in Tokyo after the forum’s first meeting in about three years.
The event, which began in 2009, was not held on a large scale the previous two years due to the souring of bilateral ties.
Yasuchika Hasegawa, co-chairman of the forum and president and CEO of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., said commerce can be of help in tough political times.
“It would be desirable if both (Japan and China) can hold dialogue more freely on a political front. But when there is no such chance, continuing business cooperation is so beneficial,” he said.
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by Admin | Jun 6, 2014 | News
(BGF) – According to The Diplomat, it is the first time ever that a number of well-known public figures in Vietnam and within the Vietnamese Diaspora signed a letter to the Philippine Ambassador in Vietnthe am to express support for the Philippine’s sovereignty rights in the Scarborough Shoal. The interesting is that the letter chose to use a combination of the Filipino and Vietnamese names, “West Philippine Sea/ East Sea” instead of using the conventional international name of “South China Sea”.
Click here to read the full article or visit The Diplomat’s website.
Vietnamese Back Philippines
May 24, 2012 by Huy Duong
(The Diplomat) – In a new twist this week to the stand-off between China and the Philippines at Scarborough Shoal, 66 Vietnamese, many of them well-known public figures in Vietnam and within the Vietnamese Diaspora, signed a letter to the Philippine Ambassador in Vietnam to express support for the Philippines’ “sovereign rights” in the continuing stand-off.
The main points of the letter are:
1) Support for the “sovereign rights” of the Philippines in the Scarborough Shoal.
2) Opposition to China’s use of the “nine-dashed line” to make overlapping claims with the Exclusive Economic Zones and continental shelves of the Philippines, Vietnam and other ASEAN countries, as well as opposition to “China’s actions and threats of force,” the latter presumably referring to articles in China’s state controlled press.
3) Support for the Philippines’ proposal to submit the dispute at Scarborough Shoal to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
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by Admin | Jun 6, 2014 | News
(BGF) – The WorldNet Daily reported that China was putting pressure on Russia to remove its commercial presence from the South China Sea, particularly the oil exploration projects it has with Vietnam. Moscow also has military interest in Vietnam, with its submarines contract with Vietnam in the end of 2011.
Click here to read the full article or visit the WorldNet Daily website.
China wants Russia out of South China Sea
May 12, 2012
(WorldNet Daily) – Just as it has demanded of the United States, China now is putting pressure on Russia to remove its commercial presence from the South China Sea, particularly the oil exploration projects it has with Vietnam.
Photo: Hanoi’s order of Kilo-class submarines from Russia
Not only is Moscow working with Hanoi on the commercial side, but it is selling submarines that Vietnam believes it needs to stand up to Beijing as its feud continues over offshore mineral rights.
Moscow’s commercial and military interests in Vietnam, however, are part of a larger strategic issue of maintaining its presence in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims is in its area of influence.
China wants all outside interests to leave, including the U.S. For Moscow, however, it not only has its own strategic interest in the area, but any pullout would be considered by Moscow as a loss of face and prestige.
Such a choice, said Dmitriy Mosyakov of the Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania Center at the Russian Sciences Institute of Oriental States, would present “the Kremlin with a choice, the price of which may prove very high.”
In so doing, Mosyakov pointed out, “it will subordinate its national interests in Asia to the interests of China and in that case the bottom line for Russia will be not only a loss of face in Asia, affecting its image, but also a loss of very lucrative oil and gas contracts worth billions of dollars.”
China’s preoccupation with other countries’ access to its area of primary interest could increasingly influence its relations with these countries in other areas of mutual interest.
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by Admin | Jun 6, 2014 | News
(BGF) – According to the Voice of America, Chinese officials were warning against any joint military patrols or exercises between Vietnam and the Philippines in the disputed Spratly Islands, which China calls Nansha. China has claimed that it has “indisputable sovereignty” and the adjacent waters over the Nansha Islands.
Click here to read the full article or visit the Voice of America website.
China Warns Against Joint Exercises in South China Seas
March 28, 2012 by Shannon Sant
Photo Credit: A general view of the third international workshop on the South China Sea, Hanoi, November 4, 2011.
(Voice of America) – Chinese officials in Beijing are warning against any joint military patrols or exercises between Vietnam and the Philippines in the disputed South China Sea.
Vietnam and Philippines military officials have discussed conducting joint exercises in the disputed region in meetings earlier this month. The exercises could include joint patrols of the Spratly Islands, which both countries and China claim as their own.
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei warned against any exercises in the Spratlys, which China calls Nansha.
China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands, he said, and the adjacent waters. Hong also said China is opposed to foreign countries’ violation of China’s sovereign rights and interests.
There have been a series of run-ins involving fishermen, military patrols, and other vessels in the disputed region in recent months, increasing tension over the competing territorial claims. Philippine and Vietnamese officials have discussed establishing a communication hotline for possible disputes, as well as sharing shipbuilding expertise.
A visiting professor at the National University of Singapore, Huang Jing, a China foreign policy analyst, said Beijing is unlikely to back down on its claims to the resource rich waters.
“China is getting stronger and stronger, the so called peaceful rise, and the rise of nationalism in China on the one hand, and also the increasing demand for external resources and the market so all of a sudden the territory dispute in the South China Seas has become a kind of priority in the policy discussion and internal debate,” Huang Jing said.
China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all claim South China Sea territories. China has claimed the largest portion of territory.
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by Admin | Jun 6, 2014 | News
(BGF) – In China government’s official website, it warned the joint military exercises and joint patrol over the Spratly Islands of neighbor countries, the Philippines and Vietnam, and described these activities as “illegal”, which infringed upon its sovereignty over the islands.
Click here to read the full article or visit China’s website.
China warns against actions damaging peace in South China Sea
March 29, 2012
China on Thursday urged relevant countries to avoid escalating and complicating the South China Sea dispute and avoid taking actions that damage peace in the area.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei made the remarks at a press conference, commenting on a report that claimed the Philippines and Vietnam planned to launch joint military exercises and joint patrols over the boundaries of the countries’ territorial waters in the South China Sea.
Hong said China owns “indisputable sovereignty” over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters, and China opposes any illegal activity that infringes upon its sovereignty over the islands.
“To maintain the peace and stability in the South China Sea complies with the common and fundamental interests of relevant countries in the area,” he added.
Relevant countries should comply with the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, and avoid taking actions that complicate and escalate disputes and damage the peace and stability in the South China Sea, said the spokesman.
